Fairy Tale
by Silver-Snow-77
Summary: For Lavilena Week 2k15 Day Six: Fairy Tale. Lavi, a travelling scholar, hears tell of a dragon that has been scaring off anyone who tries to rescue a beautiful young lady from the tower where she resides. As he finds out, things are not what they seem—the lovely and witty Lady Lenalee is very amused and most certainly NOT a damsel in distress.


**Here's the second-to-last entry for Lavilena week 2015, I had fun with this one. I love fractured fairy tales and fantasy in general.**

 **Disclaimer: DGM and all associated characters belong to Hoshino-sensei.**

 **For Lavilena Week 2k15 Day Six: Fairy Tale. Lavi, a travelling scholar, hears tell of a dragon that has been scaring off anyone who tries to rescue a beautiful young lady from the tower where she resides. As he finds out, things are not what they seem—the lovely and witty Lady Lenalee is very amused and most certainly NOT a damsel in distress.**

Lavi Bookman, grandson of a traveling scholar and historian, was a young man who had seen many strange, exotic, and fascinating things in his fifteen years of life. He had travelled over three of the seven continents, learned how to have passably decent conversations in over fifteen languages (not counting the alternative dialects he learned), and seen many of the wonders of nature and civilization alike. The drive to learn and experience as much as he possibly could within as long a lifespan as he could manage was strong in him, and it seemed that he was about to remember the phrase "curiosity killed the cat" the hard way.

"AHHHHH!"

Lavi was brave. He was strong. He was resourceful. In the opinion of many he was far too clever for his own good. He also had insatiable curiosity and a slight penchant for getting himself into mischief if he wasn't careful enough. But this...this took the cake. He was too young to die, even if death by angry dragon was a rather striking way to go!

Lavi ducked, weaved, and dodged around trees and stones as he ran through the forest as fast as he could possibly manage. How he hadn't tripped or crashed into a tree yet was beyond him, but hey, the giant fire breathing lizard trying to kill him was good incentive to not sweat the details! He could feel the burn developing in his muscles as he ran faster than he had ever run before, and if he weren't busy screaming his head off and running for his life he'd be praying to every dirty he had heard of and probably every one he hadn't if it meant being spared a painful and messy death by fantastical beast.

Unfortunately, Lavi failed to find any adequate shelter, and while the forest wasn't on fire yet it was probably only a matter of time before the dragon—HOLY SHIT, that guy wasn't kidding when he said that there were still living dragons, if he lived through this he'd apologize profusely for laughing—resorted to setting everything around it ablaze out of frustration. The dragon was long-bodied like a snake and easily weaving through the treetops of the ancient pine trees of the isolated island, somehow without a pair of wings, and it wasn't getting tired out like he was, so unless a miracle happened it wouldn't be long until he couldn't flee anymore—

Just as Lavi had the thought, his foot tangled in a root and he fell down the hill he had just crested, rolling and bumping and generally being unable to get back to his feet because his forward momentum was only increasing. When he finally came to a stop he was so dizzy and sore that moving was nearly impossible, but the loud roar of the dragon reminded him that staying still meant dying, and so he retreated on all fours up the incline towards the base of the odd Romanesque tower that the beast had first emerged from.

The dragon landed before him just before he backed into the wall and began growling menacingly as it moved closer. It was nothing like what he had expected based on Western stories, though it reminded him of the Chinese legends of the serpentine Dragons that lived under the oceans. With a strange sense of calm that likely came from numbing shock, Lavi mused on the odd fact that not only was he about to be killed by a dragon that was protecting a damsel locked away in a tower like a fairy tale gone wrong, but that it was particularly ironic for it to be an Asian dragon all the way out here in Northwestern Europe.

"BROTHER! Komui, you stop that right now!"

Lavi stared dumbly as the dragon stopped advancing on him and cringed, scuttling backwards and scuffing its bony claws in the dirt. A young woman was standing in front of him wielding a staff, and as he watched she walked up to the massive beast without fear and whacked it over the head with the staff, and rather than defending itself the dragon whimpered and lowered itself to the ground, whining pitifully and curling its long tail inwards. The girl was looking very unimpressed with the dragon as it prostrated itself before her like a naughty puppy, and Lavi almost broke into hysterical laughter when he realized that this was probably the rumored "damsel in distress" who was currently disciplining the dragon for misbehaving.

"Brother, I have told you before that scaring our guests like that is bad behavior! He obviously didn't come because he was another knight thinking to rescue a princess, he doesn't need you to terrify the life out of him like that!" The girl had lowered her volume, but even without shouting the effect of the scolding was obvious. "Come inside, he probably needs medical attention because of you and you need to apologize."

With a long sigh that still bordered on a disturbingly childish whine, the dragonstood up and slunk closer to Lavi, moping like an upset toddler the whole time. The girl was apparently satisfied with his compliance for the moment, and turned to face Lavi for the first time. She was quite pretty, most likely Chinese based on her facial features, and about the same age as him.

"Hello," she said, and she bowed slightly before stepping closer and smiling at him. "I'm Lenalee Lee, and this is my older brother Komui. What is your name?"

"Uh...Lavi, Lavi Bookman Jr.," he replied, still trying to process the events of the past few minutes. So...the 'young maiden' in question clearly wasn't a prisoner here like the storytellers had been saying. Also, the deadly yet puppyish dragon that had chased him and obeyed her orders to leave him be for now was apparently her sibling, somehow. Should he ask?

"I'm very sorry that he attacked you, he's overly cautious of strangers that come here and does his best to terrify them after all of the trouble we've been through. Did he hurt you?" She stepped closer and held out a hand to help him to his feet, which he accepted gratefully.

"Ah...yeah, I tripped and fell, but I'll be fine, really. I'm more concerned with the fact that I didn't, y'know, die? I mean, sure, dangerous things happen, but…" the redhead trailed off, wincing as he felt the tenderness of his ankle. It thankfully didn't seem as if it was much more than bruising and a bit of muscle strain, but at the very least it was going to hurt for several days, and a spark of irritation flared. In the end he settled for brushing himself off and getting inside to get the injury looked at just in case.

"Ah," Lenalee said, and she gave him a wry smile. "You thought the stories about the dragon were just rumors and wanted to satisfy your curiosity?" Komui scowled and huffed behind her, and in response Lenalee shot him a firm look that screamed 'behave' and made the man/dragon back up a step. "No, my brother here was playing with alchemy and accidentally turned himself into a dragon with a potion that I _warned_ him not to make in the first place." Well, that answered that question. "We live here with a cohort of friends and other scholars, this is just a more extreme incident of backfiring magic and we're hoping it isn't permanent."

"Ah...wait, there are more than just you two here?" The storytellers got the dragon part right, but if the "distressed damsel" and "lonely tower" parts were untrue, then just what else did no one bother to verify about the people on the island? This really might be one for the books.

"Oh, yes," Lenalee replied, nodding and starting to walk down a small path he had not previously noticed. "We belong to an organization of mages, alchemists, and scholars known as the Dark Order. Perhaps you've heard of us?" The Chinese girl paused for a moment when she heard him inhale sharply, but decided to let him prompt himself this time.

"Would you believe me if I said I came to see the rumored dragon as a short side trip on my way to your Order?" Lavi asked, sounding half-incredulous and half-embarrassed.

"Oh? Is that so?" She enquired, intrigued at the revelation. "Well then, you found us after all. Are you here to join the Order?"

"My grandfather wanted me to come here and join the Order with him, he should be here somewhere. Her you seen him? I split off from him a few days ago by accident and didn't hear about the whole dragon thing until after I lost him. He's short and ancient, his eyes are as black-bagged as a panda's, and what hair he has left is worn in this upright horsetail on top of his head," the redhead mimed his master's eyes and hair with enthusiasm, causing Kenalee to giggle quietly. "He's really sour-faced and grumpy too, it makes it hard to forget him."

"Hm...oh!" The Chinese girl snapped her fingers and turned to fully face him, not breaking stride as they came closer to the Tower door and reached a set of steps. "An old man did arrive early this morning while my brother and I were sleeping, that might be your grandfather. I'll ask Reever, my brother's assistant, where he is once the Head Healer has looked you over. Is there anything else you need or that you'd like to know?"

The apprentice scholar had a million questions running through his head, but trying to force them out with the shock of his near death experience and the dryness of his throat was quite a chore, and he really was too rattled to process everything just yet. Still, the sheer absurdity of the situation was not lost on him, and he ended up bursting into loud laughter, almost doubling over and stumbling on the doorstep. Lenalee paused and grasped his elbow carefully with her free hand to support him, and when his fit of mirth had subsided she raised an eyebrow in silent question.

"Today really was a day for surprises," Lavi wheezed through his chortles, and Lenalee blinked in surprise before she joined him in laughter as she led him inside.

 **Annnnnd, that's all for this one, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading this, because I certainly had fun writing it. Flames will be ignored, but any comments or constructive criticism are much appreciated. See ya~**


End file.
